Internet Radio Server

noelo

Hi all

I though I ask all you tech-hedz out there about this small question I have. Basically I am heading a new venture for my college. Its an internet radio station. And what I wanted to ask is; how to set up a server to stream ? and also; how will listeners, listen to the stream. I am sure it sounds like a stupid question but I am just not that advanced when it come to websites and server and so on. I am an oldschool radio joc with old knowledge. I welcome advice and gestures that will help me from all ,
many thanks

CptSternn

First, you need to decide what type of format you are going to stream. There are a few, so you will need to Google a bit to find out which one will suit you and your budget best.

Second, if you plan on having a decent number of listeners (i.e more than 15) you will need a beefy bit of hardware and a nice Internet connection.

Finally, once you have paid for the server and software you will then have to pay IRMA or whatever group will be extorting money from you for broadcasting music over the net. Thats another few grand a year.

You could use ShoutCAST to stream the music from your server, which is one of my personal favourites because it is effective and free.

Also, there are hosting services which can provide you with everything you need, and you can stream from your PC through their service and just pay a monthly fee, which you might want to look into.

But if you are going to buy the hardware you will need a proper server and a health internet connection as streaming audio to more than 15 people sucks bandwidth.

Oh yeah, don't forget the large fees you will be hit with by the record industry once they find out you are up and running.

noelo

Thats great information, some stuff I did not think off too. I dont think hardware will be an issue, we have the best available with server rooms the size of houses,and it will be on the campus of one of Ireland biggest I.T's so Bandwidth will also not be an issue as we have ample for many listeners. And i think there is a web design coarse as well on campus. Music wont be an issue either as there isint a lot of it planned as it going to be more programme based. I think the radio will be on a page of the main college website with a player and so on. whats this format thing you said?

CptSternn

noelo wrote: »

whats this format thing you said?

The format, like file type for a stream.

In the previous post I suggested ShoutCAST as it is very popular, but you can stream Windows Media (WAV), Real (.ra), Quicktime (.qt), or others.

Each one requires a proper server to stream that format and some cost more than others. ShoutCAST is free, which is why I suggested it first.

noelo

CptSternn wrote: »

The format, like file type for a stream.

In the previous post I suggested ShoutCAST as it is very popular, but you can stream Windows Media (WAV), Real (.ra), Quicktime (.qt), or others.

Each one requires a proper server to stream that format and some cost more than others. ShoutCAST is free, which is why I suggested it first.

That great help thanks, i recall a old I radio station i used to work for using windows media player to play there music on peoples computer????? would that be wave? and also if i used shout cast would my listeners be limited to a certain number? and could i still have a nice player on the web page or would i have to be redirected to some site?

CptSternn

Have a look.

http://www.schwarze-welle.de/

cian1500ww

I've done basically what you're doing before. I used shoutcast as I found it to be the most suitable and couple it with a flash player for your website and you can't go wrong. Bandwidth will be your major obstacle, if you're planning on hosting the server on an ordinary broadband connection, you'll be severely limited by the amount of users that will be able to connect. Say you're going to be using a 3MB connection, that normally has around a 350kbps upload speed, now if you're streaming quality is 50kbps then the max listeners you would be able to have is 350/50=7 listeners.